Review of Separated From the Sea on Amazon.com

Separated from the Sea is a collection of short stories set in various locations across the world, including the UK, Europe, Cuba, the USA and Japan. Although some of the stories are geographically by the sea, other kinds of separation are recurring themes: separation from a loved one, from a sense of self, from the past and from reality.
 
Huggins’ ability to suggest as much in the unstated as in the stated is skilful and subtle as she takes us inside the lives of her characters. Her facility with language and narrative allows us, as readers, to experience the full gamut of emotion in each story.

In Already Formed, a woman grieves for the child she lost years ago and imagines him in a little boy she sees at the beach: “He was the colours of the dunes, the sand, the wild flowers, and the wind-blown couch grass. He was the colours of the sea: the water and the white spume beneath the unbroken blue of the sky.”

In To be the Beach a woman is on holiday with her abusive husband: “Lydia wanted to be the beach. Every day the sand had her wrinkles smoothed by the sea, her slate wiped clean, her rubbish swept away. She presented herself anew each morning as though nothing had ever happened there before. As though no dog had ever raced headlong after a ball, leaving untidy paw prints in a skittering arc. As though lovers had never walked hand in hand at the water’s edge, and stooped to pick up shells.”

Michael Secker’s Last Day encapsulates the life of an elderly couple. Michael, who is near retirement, wants a telescope to “discover comets and meteors, stars and planets, the whirl and glitter of the galaxies opening up possibilities to him from the attic window”. His wife, Joy, who has been obsessively tidy and controlling since her miscarriage many years ago and subsequent childlessness, wants him to take an interest in gardening instead. When he dies in an accident she buys a telescope and finally discovers for herself “what Michael had searched for in the limitless sky.”

A common misconception about short stories is that they are ideal for those who want to read something quickly because they have limited time or attention spans. Amanda Huggins’ accomplished collection exemplifies why careful attention should be paid to each story. Each should be read slowly and savoured for its beautiful lyrical language, complex characterisation and wide range of voices. If they are read in this way, each story, no matter how short, will resonate long after the book is finished.

Dr Sandra Arnold
 

                                         Copyright M Huggins